Pharmacist-led medication non-adherence intervention: reducing the economic burden placed on the Australian health care system

Figures & data

Figure 1 Timeline of macro-level medication non-adherence costs. Gray literature reports data demonstrating the increasing costs associated with medication non-adherence over time.

Note: Costs in $ are expressed in US$.

Figure 2 Derivation of the cost of medication non-adherence.

Note: Stepwise approach in the methodology (adapted from Nasseh et al²³)undertaken to estimate the national cost of medication non-adherence in Australia pre- and post-community pharmacist-led intervention.

Table 1 Derivation of cost process. Outlines data input values to determine the national cost estimate of medication non-adherence in Australia

Derivation of cost process	Reported findings
Australian adult population (2018)^Citation18,Citation35	20,160,000
	Hypertension^Citation33		Dyslipidemia^Citation34		Depression^Citation33
Prevalence rates of conditions	34%		32.8%		17.5%
Prevalence rates of conditions (number of patients)	6,854,400		6,612,480		3,528,000
Average estimated PDC 6 month’s pre- and post-intervention	Pre	45.5%	Pre	45.6%	Pre	52%
	Post	37.1%	Post	37.6%	Post	40.5%
National prevalence of medication non-adherence	Pre	3,118,752	Pre	3,015,290	Pre	1,834,560
	Post	2,542,982	Post	2,486,292	Post	1,428,840
Disease-specific non-adherence cost ($AUD)^Citation11,Citation36,Citation41	Min	$2,386	Min	$8,125	Min	$3,812
	Max	$13,493	Max	$14,631	Max	$24,717
Conservative national estimate ($AUD)	Pre	$1,994,279,728	Pre	$6,565,793,975	Pre	$1,874,215,848
	Post	$1,626,104,753	Post	$5,413,900,830	Post	$1,459,725,805
Radical national estimate ($AUD)	Pre	$11,277,793,957	Pre	$11,823,277,741	Pre	$12,152,411,631
	Post	$9,195,738,241	Post	$9,749,019,451	Post	$9,464,859,059

Abbreviations: PDC, proportion of days covered; Pre, pre-adherence intervention; Post, post-adherence intervention.

Figure 3 National cost range of medication non-adherence pre and post-adherence intervention. Bars represent the conservative and radical cost associated with medication non-adherence across three chronic conditions hypertension, dyslipidemia and depression. Chart comparison demonstrates Australian national cost range pre and post-community pharmacist-led medication adherence intervention.

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